The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-08-03
PLYMOUTH LETTER.
The Heated TeTm-Gas Well-Something
About Courts, Witnesses and Juries.


PLYMOUTH, Jaly 81. The heated
section. Unless it contains some r<,oisf-
uIe that comes down in fain in
the immediate future, some ionsiI;,,,,es in
this neighborhood will prove ,, ne nnnraf i.
liable. In this imDn~",s yicinit1 the
grass is ABOUT " JrthIess. There will be
u ~ corn nor clover seed, though, up to
lis time, the prospect for a grand crop
was never more promising. So many days
with the thermometer ranging from 800 to
1O00 in the shade and the heat up to cook
ing point in the sun is beginning TO tell on
the health. The fluids and solids OF the
body are impelled to violent separation
and tendency to cholera morbus and kin
bred troubles is uncomfortably common.
The season has been three weeks early.
Wheat was mostly housed by July LIST.
Oats are about al housed now. A good
deal of corn was in tassell July 9th; but
the want of rain retards the silk, and when
1t comes, If at all, there will be no blossoms
to impregnate il, and splendid promise
will have failed unless rain comes soon.
The wheat crop was much better than had
been expected, some fields exceedldg for
mer years, while a few were very light.
TIE clover and timothy crop was excel
lent, and little timely rain would have
made the season once of prolific fruitfulness
throughout.
The gas well is down over a thousand
feet, and now suspended; nominally, to
procure casing to keep out the water, The
Trenton limestone" it was claimed they
we're fifty feet down in. When about $50
feet from the surface, seems to have play
ed out. 1t will be long bore to ii in this
region / think, and then it will not be the
quality in which gas defines itself, 1 am
afraid.
The evidences against the indicted
County Commissioners IN Chicago is clos.
ing down upon them so strong as to pre-
clude all hopes OF an acquittal. The es-
cape of McGarigle recalls that of Boss
Tweed, and will be apt to end as his did.
The center of Africa is hardly a safe place
for fugitive and there seems none nearer.
1t is easy to indict McGsrrigle for forgery
and perjury both, aud then even Canada
will not shelter him. Whas lamentable
sight it is to see prominent men On al sides
of us-those we have trusted in private
and public-surrounded with wealth and
luxury, the care aud responsibilities
OF families upon them--going
INSIDE the penitentiary as con-
victed criminals? While the papers
of every morning aud evening Issue,
bring Us the accounts OF lynchings in
every section of the country. More lament
able still is the indifference with which it
is all wired. Merely as a matter of daily
news, varied by the shocking accounts of
disaster by land and sea, aud the rise aud
fall of the markets. The sense of wrong
seems whole swallowed up in the desire
for gain by so many in all classes of COM
munity, and q sense of indifference to the
existence of so much crime exists in so
many more, that the idea of love and
order and the self desire to uphold both,
seems to be losing an abiding place in the
in the minds of the people. In nothing is
the want OF confidence of man in his fell
low man so forcibly exhibited as in the
matter of jurors and witnesses While
the judges, the prosecutors and all the
lawyers concerned in a case are left ut
liberty, the jurors are placed under guard
and etiectually imprisoned, allowed no
intercourse with any one while on duty
lest they should exhibit corruotioDs and
commit crimes as jurors. The judge,
prosecutors, attorneys and witnesses are
all equally Liable and yet they are not re-
strained. Again, the witnesses are sworn
to tell the truth. Instead of being put on
the stand and informed of what the law
requires and left to obey it
or take the consequences, the
cath, properly interpreted, says this. 1--WE
have no confidence in you. Ordinarily
we would take your word. But as a wit
ness we think you are net to be trusted,
and we think you would or might cor
ruptly lie. Therefore in fear of God, an
eternal bell, and the penitentiary, you
swear that on this special occasion you
will tell the truth and not lie." I never
yet prostituted my manhood by holding
up my hand in court and admitting that
was such liar that couldnot be believed.
and then swore that for that one
occasion / would for once tell the
truth; for j always regarded the oath to a
witness a. saying ust that, no more, no